M’s take series from Phillies, Brendan Ryan wonders what you’re waiting for

Jason Vargas had plenty to like about his complete game shutout against the Phillies on Sunday. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

Do not make the mistake of attributing Sunday’s sellout crowd at Safeco Field solely to the emergence of the Seattle Mariners as a competitive baseball team.

Would be nice to, certainly. But the Philadelphia Phillies’ presence on the diamond accounted for a sizeable portion of this weekend’s attendance figures.

You know that. The Mariners know that. Especially Brendan Ryan, who wondered, after his team won 2-0 on Sunday and took two out of three games from the best-in-baseball Phillies: Where the heck are you guys the rest of the time?

“You’d have to be dead not to feel it,” the eternally boisterous Ryan said of the atmosphere created here by the 45,462 in attendance, the second sellout of the season. “I just hope it continues that way. I hope that this is a big wakeup call to fans that aren’t quite into it yet. I don’t know what you’re waiting for now. Two out of three from the best team in baseball? That’s enough for me.”

Seattle? You there?

Phillies fans came to see their aces – Roy Oswalt and Hamels, this weekend – match pitches against the likes of Michael Pineda and Felix Hernandez, who, likewise, were tasked with facing one of the more dangerous lineups in the National League.

By the time those red-clad fans departed, Jason Vargas had trumped all others who took the mound this weekend, and the Mariners, before a Safeco crowd crammed to the rafters, for once, had pulled back within a half-game of the Texas Rangers for the AL West lead.

“I know there were a lot of Phillies fans out there,” Ryan said, acknowledging the impressive turnout by supporters of the visitors, “but we get them (Mariners fans) behind us and we don’t hear those Phillies fans anymore.”

Vargas was the primary silencer, tossing his second complete-game shutout of the year while allowing only three hits – all singles, all harmless.

“Just throwing strikes,” Vargas said, asked what worked for him today, and he was right.

He struck out five batters, but mostly, Vargas kept the Phillies at bay by locating each of his pitches, letting them put the ball in play and leaving it to the Mariners defense to take care of the rest.

They did. Vargas’ only true trouble spot was a first-inning jam that shouldn’t have been. He struck out Chase Utley with two outs and nobody on, but Miguel Olivo couldn’t glove the pitch, it rolled to the backstop and Utley was able to reach first base to extend the inning.

A single by Ryan Howard and a wild pitch – it went right between Olivo’s legs – put runners on second and third, two outs, Ben Francisco at the plate.

Francisco hit a shallow fly ball to left field. Almost too shallow. But Greg Halman sprinted in, half-slid, made the catch and the inning ended without the Phillies scratching across what would have been an awfully cheap pair of runs.

But that was far from Vargas’ signature moment on Sunday. No, that came in the ninth inning, when, after a two-out single by Howard snapped a string of 15 consecutive batters retired, Mariners manager Eric Wedge made a trip to the mound to tell his lefty he was going to finish this thing, damn it.

The manager had his “crazy eyes” on, according to Ryan, who gathered with the rest of the Mariners infield around Vargas and Wedge as they spoke briefly.

“I didn’t ask him anything,” Wedge said. “I just talked to him. Let him know this is his game.”

“He said, ‘it’s your game to finish,’” Vargas relayed.

The crowd, which had been standing during Howard’s at-bat, roared its approval as Wedge returned to the dugout, Brandon League still waiting in the bullpen.

Francisco flew out to center field to end the game. Wedgie and those crazy eyes had done the trick.

“There’s a reason (pitching coach) Carl (Willis) didn’t go out there,” said Ryan, who also used the word “awesome” six times as he described Wedge’s final mound visit. “[Wedge] wanted to go out there and say, ‘I’m sticking with you, get this done. This is your game.’”

Hamels matched Vargas zero-for-zero until the bottom of the sixth, when a pair of fortunate singles allowed the Mariners on the scoreboard.

With one out, Ichiro hit a hard one-hopper toward Howard at first base. It ate the big man alive, and Ichiro was aboard with a single.

Ryan followed with a ground ball to shortstop that might have been a double-play, had Ichiro not been running on the pitch. Jimmy Rollins’ only play was at first base, so he threw Ryan out there as Ichiro moved to scoring position.

Justin Smoak followed with a flair into left field, over the heads of the Phillies infield, and Ichiro coasted home for the game’s first run.

The Mariners added another in the seventh, when Dustin Ackley led off with a triple, and Adam Kennedy dropped a pinch-hit single in front of Michael Martinez in left field to make it 2-0.

Hamels was pulled from the game, the gathered masses exorted the home team’s scratch-and-claw effort, and hey, isn’t this what baseball is supposed to look like?

“They’re tough. They’ve shown up to play all year long,” Wedge said. “They pull for each other. We’ve got good energy, good focus, they’re good workers. I think what they’re starting to show us now is they can dig deep when they need to.”

The encouragement helps. And so what you have here is a team that is past wanting, past believing. They’re winning now. Ackley, Mike Carp, Greg Halman — all young, eager talent — are here, contributing. The pitching is still there, too.

And while you can stay at home and continue to wonder just how long they can keep this going, wouldn’t it be a lot more fun to come out and see just how long they can keep this going?

“We’re playing for each other, but, we’re (also) playing for the staff, we’re playing for the city,” Ryan said. “We want to win. I don’t care about last year. I wasn’t here last year. A lot of us weren’t here last year. It’s a new year and we’re doing things the right way, no disrespect to whatever’s happened. This is a great environment. It’s all about stacking Ws.”